Bears pounce on punchless Ospreys

North Florida matched its season-low of 47 points Thursday night. And UNF coach Matthew Driscoll attributed much of the blame to the Ospreys’ lack of defensive play.

The Mercer Bears held North Florida to 20 points in the first half and didn’t let up much in the second half in a 66-47 win Thursday night at UNF Arena.

Mercer, playing without its coach, Bob Hoffman, who sat in his Jacksonville hotel room because of a game suspension from two technical fouls and an ejection in the previous game, used a collapsing defense on JU’s long-range threats, Parker Smith and Beau Beech. It worked to near-perfection.

Smith and Beech came into the game with a combined 95 3-pointers this season, tied for the most in the nation.

But Mercer held the duo to a pair of treys each, accounting for their only points in the game.

“We didn’t finish plays tonight. We’ve got to get stops at the other end of the floor,” Driscoll said. “This isn’t rocket science. The best defensive teams in the [Atlantic Sun Conference] have always been the top one or two finishers in the league. We’ve got to figure out why we get stops sometimes and not other times.”

North Florida (7-11, 2-3 A-Sun) was able to hit 10 baskets from beyond the arc, but it took 26 attempts to do so. Ray Rodriguez scored 11 points, the only UNF player to reach double figures.

Travis Wallace, who had scored at least 10 points in 14 consecutive games since he was inserted into the starting lineup, was held to eight points on 3-of-11 shooting. Parker’s six points were well below his 16.4 average.

“Yeah, it’s very frustrating to be guarded like that, to know that every game someone is going to be on you like that,” Smith said. “Even if the guys set a screen for me, I’ve got to get open. It has to be a good pass, and it’s got to be on time. There are a lot of things that coincide with setting a screen in order to get a shot off at the same time.”

Rodriguez sparked a second-half comeback by UNF when he drilled three 3-pointers in a 65-second span near the midway point. When Beech hit from long range a minute later, the Ospreys had trimmed a 14-point deficit to 47-41 with 9½ minutes left in the game. But UNF went flat, and Mercer (10-7, 3-1) raised its play a level. The Bears finished the game with a 19-6 surge.

“I had open shots, and my teammates found me,” Rodriguez said about his scoring outburst. “I’ve done it in practice so it seemed pretty routine.”

Mercer had four players in double figures, led by Travis Smith with 15.

North Florida returns to action Saturday afternoon when it plays host to Kennesaw State, a triple-overtime loser to Jacksonville on Thursday.